In a post-ironic era, terms such as "corporate celebrations," "workplace rituals," and even "organizational culture" sound ripe for parody. Movies like Office Space and television programs like The Simpsons and both the U.K. and U.S. versions of The Office routinely take familiar stabs at workplace morale-boosting. There's a reason that the comic strip "Dilbert" remains funny.

The majority of "fun" events illicit smirks, cringes, and ridicule from employees rather than inspire goodwill, team-building, and cultural cohesion among them. In their book Corporate Celebration: Play, Purpose, and Profit at Work (Berrett Koehler, 1998), co-authors Terrence Deal and M.K. Key identify numerous ways to design failed celebrations, including the following:

  • Get the public relations department, an ad agency, or the marketing department to do it for you;
  • Cut corners, underfund it; let the food or drink run out — maybe they'll leave early;
  • Invent your own version of a good time;
  • Mistake grumbling about the annual event for a unanimous yearning for something new;
  • Use the event to show that you have a tender side, even though you don't;
  • Give thoughtless gifts;
  • Put new, aspiring executives in charge of an occasion without knowledge of what has always been done before;
  • Stick strictly to a script;
  • Ask employees to substitute for hired help; and
  • Force people to follow a passion that only you have — for example, deep-sea fishing for employees and spouses, where most of them get seasick.

As many of those "don'ts" demonstrate, corporate celebration guidance can be just as uncomfortable as corporate celebrations themselves. The notion of planning an organization ritual according to a set of guidelines seems contradictory in nature — particularly in organizations brimming with intelligent and clever personalities. Perhaps that explains why several Bain World Cup participants, including one of the event's co-founders, seem at a loss for words when pressed to describe the organizational benefits of their long-standing ritual.

"Although Bain as a company is happy that this happens, it's not organized by Bain, it's organized by the participants," says Paul Rogers, a London-based partner and head of the firm's global organization practice (as well as a veteran midfielder and one of the event's four founders). "It's always been organized this way. It's very laid back. It's very natural — that's the best way I can put it.'
This is fortunate for Bain, but should serve as a "proceed cautiously" warning for any partners or executives at other firms who might consider taking a page from Bain's playbook.

"If we had commissioned a team to go out and plan something that would help to build our culture, this would be the best thing that they could have come up with," notes Liz Ramos, a partner and head of global human capital for Bain in Boston.

Bain's event thrives, in part, because it was not the product of a committee or formal planning. "This emerged organically in a way that was so culturally consistent with how we operate at Bain," Ramos adds. "There is nothing about it that makes us want to change it in any way."

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